Evan dragged his tongue down her neck, and sparks of need coursed through her. She cupped his face and kissed him hard. The kiss caused his cock to jump underneath her needy pussy.
He pulled away and closed his eyes as he dropped his head back. “I want you.”
The green light flashed in her brain. She leaned back and fumbled with the buttons on her shirt. Before she got to the bottom button, his cell rang.
“Ignore it,” he said as his mouth kissed her below her throat.
When she worked part-time at a doctor’s office in LA, all calls were important. “Someone might need rescuing.”
He must have realized she was right. “Damn.” He broke the kiss and plucked the phone from his back pocket. “Sparks, what’s up? How bad? Where’s Doc?”
She didn’t like how his jaw had tightened or how his knuckles had turned white while clutching the phone.
He mouthed Brody got cut.
She wanted to ask the questions, but as a wilderness EMT, Sparks would be well trained to do the right thing.
“We’ll be right there.” He disconnected.
“What happened?”
“I’ll talk while you dress.”
She jumped off his lap and hurriedly replaced her warm clothes. “Tell me.”
“A customer was trying to get the feel for an ax, and somehow he didn’t realize anyone was behind him. When he took a swing, the blade cut Brody in the leg.”
She sucked in a breath. “Is it bad enough for him to go to the hospital?”
“According to Sparks, Brody doesn’t even want Doc Trumble to look at it.” He zipped up his jacket. “You ready?”
“Yes.” What a stupid, stubborn man. “If you’d been injured, would you have accepted help?”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and walked her to the truck. “That depends. I don’t mind if the injury hurts, but if I think it might get infected, then yes, I’d get help.”
“I hope Brody’s up-to-date on his tetanus shot.”
Evan cocked a brow. “Right.”
Men.
He held open the truck door for her before piling into the driver side and started the engine.
The twenty-minute drive down the mountain gave her time to think about what Evan had said. She wanted to make sense of Brody’s response to the injury. Maybe it was just a scratch.
Evan parked close to the store. “Let me speak with him first. You don’t need to rush in and play Ms. Nurse. That might set him off.”
Of that she was certain, but she wanted to explain that she was a professional and knew how to take care of a difficult patient. She’d stay calm, take his vitals, ask him questions about his allergies, medications, and his last ins and outs. “For your information, I don’t rush in. I’m a trained nurse, who doesn’t happen to have any supplies.”
A small smile lifted his lips. “I can see this is going to go well.” Then he had the nerve to chuckle.
Brittany refused to respond. When they walked in, the store’s customers were going about their business. Perhaps only a few people saw or knew of the incident.
“Sparks said Brody’s back in his office.”
She hadn’t expected her stomach to churn or her palms to sweat. It wasn’t like she hadn’t worked in the ER for a few months or acted as a surgical nurse for six weeks. Blood never bothered her. Then again, she never knew her patient before. Many had been angry and in denial, but she bet none would be as difficult as Brody Thomas.
His curses reached her before they got to his office. This was not going to be good.
Evan walked in first. He stopped so fast, she nearly ran into his back. Brittany stepped to the side to see the extent of the damage. A pool of blood was on the ground under Brody’s leg.
Her stomach lurched. Stay calm.
At least Sparks had been able to get him to sit.
“What the fuck is she doing here?”
Don’t let him get to you. She inhaled to appear calm.
Both Evan and Sparks took a step to the side, but they remained positioned between her and Mr. Bravado.
“She’s a nurse, Brody. She can help.”
His laugh sounded closer to a bark. “I don’t need her help.”
Evan’s hand fisted. “You want to get an infection? That ax can make you septic faster than a bear bite.” His tone came out sharper than the steel blade that cut Brody’s leg.
His mouth twitched. “No.”
While Evan’s comment wasn’t true, she appreciated what he was trying to do.
She pushed her way between the two men, but Brody’s gaze had softened. She prayed it wasn’t due to volume shock. “I’m calling Doc Trumble. The gash looks deep.”
Brody waved a hand. “Don’t bother. It’s just a little cut.”
“Then what caused the pool of blood under your leg? Did you repaint the floor red?” She wasn’t going to leave without seeing to his care.
He skewed his lips to the side before blowing out a breath. “Fine. You can take care of it.”
Well, that was a nice change of tune. Evan’s comment must have gotten to him.
“I’ll be right back.” She stepped outside and called the doctor.
“I’m tied up right now, Brittany. I can come in a bit if you think it’s critical.”
“He needs some stitches.”
“If he were at the office, I’d probably have you do it. So if you feel comfortable with the procedure, go ahead.”
She’d stitched up many patients. “I can handle it, but I’ll need some antiseptic, something to numb his leg, and sutures.”
“Who’s with you?”
“Sparks and Evan.”
“Send one of them to the clinic and I’ll tell Tanya to make a package for you.”
“Thanks.”
She disconnected and went back into Brody’s office. She told Sparks what she needed.
“I’m on it.”
She turned to Brody. “I need for you to lie on the floor and prop your leg higher than your heart. It’ll help control the bleeding. Evan, I need towels to stop the bleeding and a pair of scissors to cut off his pants.” The cloth Brody was holding over his leg had seeped through.
“Can do.”
“You’re not cutting off my jeans,” Brody protested.
“I have to have access to your injury. If I don’t cut them off, you’ll have to remove your pants, which might cause further bleeding.”
He groaned. “I ain’t got anything underneath them.”
Wasn’t that just great? She winced at his slang. “That’s why cutting would be best.”
“They’re my good jeans.”
She didn’t want to argue. “Then take them off.” She nodded to his cock. “It ain’t nothing I haven’t seen before. I can cover you up with a tiny cloth so your private parts don’t show.” If he wanted to talk like a cowboy, so could she. Though why she chose to incite a riot, she didn’t know. Hopefully, the repartee would help keep him alert.
“I’m sorry to see your memory is shot to hell.”
Because he really did have the biggest cock she’d ever seen? “That right? Maybe you need to show me.” Stop it. She had enough to handle between Sparks and Evan. She sure as hell didn’t need Brody sniffing around her, too.
Liar, liar.
“Let me get on the floor first.” Brody leaned forward to follow her previous direction, when he dropped back against the chair. “Give me a sec.”
His eyes looked a bit unfocused and his reaction time appeared delayed. She feared his mental status might have altered. “Do you know what day it is?”
“The day hell froze over.” When he winked, she had to chuckle. His mercurial nature was what drove her crazy all those years ago and had led, in part, to their big fight.
Brody took a big inhale. “Okay. I’m ready.” He pressed down with his good leg and stood. Immediately, he grabbed onto his desk to steady himself.
When he wobbled, she rushed to thread her hands under his armpits. “E
asy.”
“I don’t need help.”
“I know.” She needed to touch him first to see if she’d melt with the contact. It was close.
He eased down to the floor. She moved to the side, lifted his legs, and slid them onto to the seat. “There.”
She waited for his respirations to slow before she did anything. Evan finally returned with the towels and scissors.
She waved off the shears. “Since your stubborn brother won’t let me cut off the jeans, can you help him take off those jeans so I can suture him up?”
“I need to get his boots off first,” Evan volunteered.
Brody then lifted his butt and pushed down the jeans. She wanted to look away, but that was like asking a moth not to fly into the light. While he wasn’t fully erect, his cock was thick and long.
“If you stare at it anymore, babe, I’ll have to charge admission.”
She raised her gaze to his face and was met with a grin. Damn Brody Thomas. “I was checking to see if you tore open the cut some more.” He had, but it wasn’t severe.
“Sure, babe.”
His endearment shot straight to her heart.
Once the pants cleared his butt, she stood behind the chair and tugged slowly, not wanting to make the wound worse.
He winced and she knew the injury wasn’t superficial. “We need Doc Trumble.” She looked around. “And where is Sparks with the antiseptic?”
Evan produced a first aid kit from his side. “Start with this. We keep one well stocked in the truck. That’s what took me so long when you sent me for the towels.” He opened it up and handed her pads and povidone-iodine.
“You want to do this?” Since he had the kit and was a qualified search and rescue person, he could handle it.
“You do it.”
Before she did any work on Brody, she made the call to Dr. Trumble. “I could use your help.” She told him the length and depth of the cut.
“It’ll take me about twenty before I finish up here. You sure you can’t start suturing?”
She hadn’t even started her job yet and didn’t want to disappoint him. “Sure.”
Damn. Inhaling, she drew on her nursing training to detach her mind from her heart. Placing a towel on the floor, she knelt in front of Brody. His cock jumped, or else she had imagined it had. Bastard probably twitched it on purpose to see if she’d get flustered. Calmly, she picked up a hand towel and dropped it over his dick. That was much better. Distractions wouldn’t do Brody’s life or her career any good.
He had the nerve to adjust the towel so that it was only a single layer instead of a bunched pile of cloth. Now his cock was fully outlined.
“You’re staring again.”
She failed to keep the heat from racing up her face. After donning surgical gloves and checking to see if iodine solution was the right concentration, she opened the top and poured some of the brown liquid on an antiseptic pad. “This might sting a little.”
Brody lowered his chin and looked up at her. “Real men don’t feel pain.”
They would when she pricked the wound with the deadening agent. “Wait until tomorrow.”
Blood had started to cake around the wound, and the bleeding had almost stopped. With as much care as she could, she rubbed the area around the wound to clean it.
“Tell me again how you did this. I’m guessing you pissed someone off so much that he decided to take a swing at you.” She wanted to keep his mind off what she was doing.
“You’re the only one to get under my skin that much.”
“Funny.” When she dragged the pad across the cut, he gritted his teeth. “Sorry.”
“You did that on purpose.” She couldn’t tell if he was in real pain or just making conversation.
“If I wanted to inflict pain, you’d know it.”
“Can only cut a heart in half one time, babe.” The bitterness dug deep into her gut.
She wanted to tell him the truth about why she’d left, only now wasn’t the time or place.
Thank God Sparks came bursting through the door just then carrying a box. “Doc gave me a script for antibiotics.” He looked at Brody. “I took the liberty of dropping it off at the pharmacy.”
Good thinking. Brody would never get it filled himself. “Great. That’ll save him a trip.”
For the next fifteen minutes, she did her nursing, numbing the area that needed to be stitched. While she probably didn’t need to make such tiny stitches, she didn’t want him complaining she left him permanently scarred.
Just as she finished, Doc Trumble rumbled in, a bit out of breath.
He studied the patient. “Evan, give me a hand down.”
Trumble was getting on in age, but with help, he managed to kneel on the floor. With gloved hands, he pressed the sides of the wound to see if the stitches held. “Couldn’t have done a better job myself.” He looked at Brody. “Make sure you take those antibiotics.”
“Yes, sir.”
Evan helped the doc stand. He warned him about keeping off the leg and left.
She covered the injured area with a sterile pad and taped it. She looked up at Evan. “Maybe you can grab a pair of overalls for him to wear. His jeans are going to smell soon.”
Brody reached for his pants. “I can wear ’em.”
Spoken like a real man. “They’re dirty. Stop acting like the ax blade cut was a scratch. You should just be glad the man responsible didn’t cut an artery.” He’d be dead and so would her soul.
Evan left and returned moments later carrying a few different pairs of overalls. “Here ya go, bro.”
Brody grabbed all three pairs and picked one. Brody held on to the cloth over his groin as he started to get up.
“Sparks, can you help him?” She feared if he put too much strain on his leg, the cut would start bleeding again.
Brody sent her a death glare. “Lady, you don’t know shit about men. We don’t like to get help.”
Lady? Oh, she knew that tone all too well. “When the stitches pop, don’t call me.”
She didn’t really mean it, but she’d had enough of his sour attitude. “Sparks, make sure Macho Man here takes the pills and drinks lots of fluids. He’s lost a lot of blood.” She turned back to Brody. “You heard what the doctor said. You should take off a few days, or at least work at your desk, but I know you’ll be stupid and try to go skiing or something just to prove how tough you are.”
The cloth covering his cock fell to the ground. She should have turned away or kept her gaze on his face, but her stupid, hormone-ridden brain dragged her gaze his way. As if he knew what was in her head, he lifted his thick member.
“A touch will cost you, but a lick is free.” Brody glanced between Evan and Sparks. “Boys, perhaps you should excuse us. It seems our snooty nurse needs to be paid for her services.”
Chapter Six
Neither Sparks nor Evan moved an inch, as if they didn’t dare leave her alone with him. Brody appreciated their protective nature, but surely they knew he was pulling her leg. She’d never go down on him again.
His cock twitched. Damn thing. Looking at Brittany made him hard, not to mention how his blood had heated when she’d sewn up his leg. As a young girl, she was inexperienced and tentative. Seven years later, she’d turned into an accomplished woman. Had they stayed together, he wondered where both would have ended up.
She dumped you. Get real.
Light-headedness attacked him, and he quickly sat. He bent over to put on the overalls.
Brittany’s composure seemed to return, for she glared at him. “I’ll send you a bill. You can ply someone else with your services.”
He held back a laugh. “You know where to find me.”
She tilted her head. “A few days ago, you grabbed my arm and kicked me out of your store. Now, you’re being…less of an ass?”
“Couldn’t you just say I’m being nice? Or maybe even charming?” The tough act had been a gut reaction. He knew he needed to move on, only the hurt lived deep
inside him. Be a man. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. I guess I was too quick to judge.”
She glanced at Sparks, but he couldn’t decipher what the look meant.
She stepped toward him, and if he wasn’t mistaken, she purposefully leaned over him as a sign of power. He had to hand it to her. She had guts.
“Just to make it clear, Mr. Thomas, I didn’t come back to Pleasure to rekindle our relationship.”
Ouch. “Never thought you had.” He puffed out his chest, proud that he kept his retort to himself.
When she glanced to the side, he knew right then that she was lying. I’ll be damned.
Evan took hold of her arm. “Let’s go.”
Sparks picked up a package from the floor. “I got the plumbing supplies to fix Brittany’s sink. You going to be okay by yourself?”
Damn. They were going to have fun with Brittany without him. “Sure, but I don’t think I can drive home.” He probably could, though pressing in the clutch with his bad leg might not be smart. Besides, why should his friend and brother have all the pleasure?
Evan let go of her arm and faced her. “You mind if Sparks takes you home? I’ll stay with Brody to make sure he doesn’t do any manly lifting.”
Brody almost laughed out loud.
She shot him a look then swung her gaze to Evan. “That’s a good idea. He needs someone to babysit him.”
He thought he detected a bit of disappointment when Evan said he was staying. That might work to his advantage. He and Evan used to share women, though of late, no one had fit both of their lifestyles. Maybe Brittany would be the one. He’d royally screwed up this relationship a long time ago. If he played his cards right, maybe she’d give him a second chance.
What are you thinking? She’ll toss you out if Sparks or Evan put their claim on her first. Best to keep your distance.
So far, it seemed all he’d done was to make the chasm wider between them. But damn, what this new Brittany did to him. His blood boiled looking at her, which caused his temper to flare. Or was it denial that caused his libido to go into overdrive? He had loved her once. Did he still?
Hell, no.
When he looked up, Brittany and Sparks had left, and the air seemed to thin.
Evan stood over him. “I’ll drive you home. But first we need to pick up the antibiotics Doc prescribed.”
Monroe, Melody Snow - Brittany's Destiny [Pleasure, Montana 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 6
